[Vision2020] Bush Wants More for Wars

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 25, 2005) Spokesman Review.

I wonder how many corporate tax breaks will be awarded this year.

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Bush wants more for wars 
He will seek $80 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan
Alan Fram
Associated Press
January 25, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to announce today it will request
about $80 billion more for this year's costs of fighting wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, congressional aides said Monday.

The request will push the total provided so far for those wars and for U.S.
efforts against terrorism elsewhere in the world to more than $280 billion
since the first money was appropriated shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001,
airliner attacks on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center.

 
That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for World
War I or the $623 billion it spent for the Vietnam War, when the costs of
those conflicts are translated into 2005 dollars.

White House officials refused to comment on the war spending package, which
will be presented as the United States confronts a new string of violence in
Iraq as that country's elections approach on Sunday.

The forthcoming request underscores how war spending has clearly exceeded
initial White House estimates. Early on, then-presidential economic adviser
Lawrence Lindsey placed Iraq costs of $100 billion to $200 billion, only to
see his comments derided by administration colleagues.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday it was Congress'
"highest responsibility" to provide the money that American troops need. But
in a written statement, she said Democrats would ask questions about Bush's
policies there.

"What are the goals in Iraq, and how much more money will it cost to achieve
them? Why hasn't the president and the Pentagon provided members of Congress
a full accounting of previous expenditures?" Pelosi added.

She also said she wanted to know why Iraqi troops aren't playing a larger
role in security there.

The package will not formally be sent to Congress until after President Bush
introduces his 2006 budget on Feb. 7, said the aides, who spoke on condition
of anonmity. They said White House budget chief Joshua Bolten or other
administration officials would describe the spending request publicly today.

Until now, the White House had not been expected to reveal details of the
war package until after the budget's release.

The decision to do so earlier comes after congressional officials argued to
the administration that withholding the war costs from Bush's budget would
open the budget to criticism that it was an unrealistic document, one aide
said. Last year, the spending plan omitted war expenditures and received
just that critique.

Adding additional pressure, the Congressional Budget Office planned to
release a semi-annual report on the budget today that was expected to
include a projection of war costs. Last September, the nonpartisan budget
office projected the 10-year costs of the wars at $1.4 trillion at current
levels of operations, and $1 trillion if the wars were gradually phased
down.

Aides said about three-fourths of the $80 billion was expected to be for the
Army, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting in Iraq. It also was
expected to include money for building a U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has
been estimated to cost $1.5 billion.

One aide said the request will also include funds to help the new Afghan
government combat drug-trafficking. It might also have money to help two new
leaders the U.S. hopes will be allies, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and
Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko.

The aides said the package Bush eventually submits to Congress will also
include money to help Indian Ocean countries hit by the devastating December
tsunami.

Not including the latest package, lawmakers have so far provided the Defense
Department with $203 billion for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and against
terrorists, according to the Congressional Research Service.

That includes $121 billion for the war in Iraq, $53 billion for Afghanistan
and $29 billion for improved security and anti-terror efforts in the United
States and abroad.

The research service is an arm of Congress that provides reports to
lawmakers and aides.

In addition, Congress has provided nearly $21 billion for rebuilding Iraq
and almost $4 billion for Afghan reconstruction. Large portions of that
money has not been spent, especially in Iraq, where an armed insurgency and
bureaucratic delays have slowed many projects.